From: jwkenne@attglobal.net
On 2014-10-05 20:46:43 +0000, Jacey Bedford said:
> On 05/10/2014 13:32, William Vetter wrote:
>> On Sunday, October 5, 2014 7:52:51 AM UTC-4, Jacey Bedford wrote:
>>> On 30/09/2014 15:27, John W Kennedy wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2014-09-30 02:11:52 +0000, Michelle Bottorff said:
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>>> A. Tina Hall wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> (Now imagine not being able to use pay, buy, trade, deal,... because
>>>
>>>>>> they don't have any economy based on trades.)
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Sounds rough.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Racciman's World is hard enough with a "don't use" list that includes:
>>>
>>>>> year, month, week, hour, minute, second, mile, ghost, and cat. There
>>>
>>>>> may be more that I've forgotten.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Yours is definately worse.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>> I also wonder about the use of the word switch, what root there is,
>>>
>>>>>> because I only know electric switches (when not thinking "whips"), and
>>>
>>>>>> want to use the word in the sense of switching objects, positions,
>>>
>>>>>> whatever.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Shakespeare uses "switch" as in whip, but not, apparently in the sense
>>>
>>>>> you want.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> I don't know where that usage came in -- If I had to guess, I think I'd
>>>
>>>>> go with Victorian.
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> But I confess, it never would have occurred to me to avoid it on grounds
>>>
>>>>> of it being too recent.
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>> Electric switches are named after railway switches. (British English
>>>
>>>> commonly uses "point", instead, but "switch" seems to be the earlier
>>>
>>>> term.) One would suppose the bending, tapered rails used in a railway
>>>
>>>> switch were being compared to a rider's switch.
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes we use the word points in Britain, perhaps because the change of
>>>
>>> position points the train in another direction. I'm guessing.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In both cases the use of the word 'switch' meaning to change seems like
>>>
>>> the obvious one to me, however. A rider's 'switch' has no meaning in
>>>
>>> British English and I can't see the link between it and railway lines.
>>>
>>> Do you mean the stick a rider carries? That's a crop in British English
>>>
>>> (or a whip depending on the actual implement, but crop is most common).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> An electric swtich switches or changes the current. Seems obvious.
>>>
>> The electric switch came after development of railroads, I think.
>>
>> I will tell you what I think the ultimate origin is, based on looking
>> this up in various places.
>> 1) switch was first a stick involved in horsemanship.
>> 2) the railroad switches were originally operated manually, by a lever
>> that was about as long as a switch or riding crop, so they came to be
>> called switches in US.
>> 3) electrical switches were named after the railroad switch, on account
>> of analogous function.
>> #2 is the murkiest of word origins of the three. I am not an expert,
>> but this seems the most logical, after looking through what I have
>> around.
>>
>>
>>
>
> You're ignoring the obvious that to switch means to change.
It didn't.
--
John W Kennedy
"The bright critics assembled in this volume will doubtless show, in
their sophisticated and ingenious new ways, that, just as /Pooh/ is
suffused with humanism, our humanism itself, at this late date, has
become full of /Pooh./"
-- Frederick Crews. "Postmodern Pooh", Preface
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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